Alfred Moses

Yes, we're not making any reductions to the Literacy Council. We do fund them up over $900,000, as stated yesterday. That does reflect a lot of programs throughout the Northwest Territories, but at this moment, no.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did give somewhat of an explanation yesterday. We will go back to my assistant deputy minister, Mr. Olin Lovely, to get into a little bit more detail. Thank you.

Thank you. Some of those programs are listed under income security but for some of the other ones that he was asking there are some allocated in fees and payments as well. If the Member would like a further breakdown we can provide that to the Member, of dollars that have been allocated for all of them. It is in the description report we are funding all areas that he's having these questions about, it's just under the operations expenditures summary. It's in income security as well as fees and payments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, for the detail on that I'll go to my deputy minister.

We could give a formal response, but it is simply going to be saying what we are here today as the action plan. We have to get that done first. We could give a formal response this week, early next week. We still want to work with all our stakeholders when we are developing this action plan and making sure it is reflective of the comprehensive report. That will be the next steps. Yes, we will get a formal response out this week or early next week.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we will be glad to provide a package for the Member. I know that we do have an early childhood consultant in the Sahtu region who has been working with various stakeholders to see what options we have to provide daycares in the community of Norman Wells. We will get that package to the Member, and maybe we will also see if we can set up a meeting with our early childhood consultant to see all the work that has been provided to the stakeholders and the options of possibly, if we can't find a building, looking at a day home that is not a public housing unit.

Yes, as I mentioned, northern grants have increased for our northern residents, as well as the northern bonus for anybody that's coming back to work in the north or even an option for southern students that want to come and work up in the Northwest Territories. It's an increase so we can actually attract skilled development workforce as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned earlier, the Skills 4 Success Action Plan that we are going to be rolling out here and hopefully bringing back into the House in the fall is going to be reflective of all our partners, stakeholders, whether they are businesses, Aurora College, moving forward. We want to make sure that action plan gets done and that the business case from all areas is looked at. Hopefully we will have their input into creating this action plan as well, which we did commit to working with all our partners on the development of this action plan.

That's a very complex situation. Anybody who is in housing and wants to provide daycare is in day home programs, doesn't currently fall under our criteria, and in fact, it would be almost starting up a business within the housing program. It's not currently in the criteria. I don't believe we will be looking at that as an option, but we will see, if there is, what other options that we can provide in the Sahtu. I know we have gotten some requests from members in the communities that would like to open up that daycare or a day home that live in public housing units, and right now, that just...

Yes, we could look at making sure that it's done before the end of the fiscal year.